LONDON (Alliance News) - Vela Technologies PLC on Wednesday said it has raised GBP400,000 through a 400.0 million share placing at 0.10 pence per share, of which it will invest GBP91,341 in Portr Ltd.
Shares in technology investor were down 26% at 0.13 pence each in morning trade.
Potr owns home bag check-in and delivery service Airportr, which lets airline passengers check in bags online and have them collected from their doorstep. Prior to this follow-on investment, Vela had a 3.1% stake in Portr and its resultant holding has not been disclosed.
Vela also made note of Airportr's recently announced partnership with Thomas Cook Group PLC, which is the seventh airline to sign up for the service.
Vela Executive Director Antony Laiker said: "Following on from the announcement of the placing and the proposed follow-on investment in Portr together with the new partnership with Thomas Cook, we are looking forward to being able to provide further updates not only on Airportr but also other investee companies such as Vibe Group, StreamTV Networks and WeShop. All of these companies are at exciting stages of their development."
Substantial shareholder Kevin Sinclair has subscribed for 45.0 million shares in the Vela placing and Laiker will subscribe for 25.0 million placing shares.
Laiker and another Vela investor Scott Fletcher each hold GBP200,000 of 8% convertible unsecured loan notes in the company. These can be repaid at any time at a price of 0.15p per share until their repayment date on September 2019.
Vela has entered into an agreement with Laiker concerning his GBP200,000 of loan notes. Under the agreement, the loan note and interest will be repaid using proceeds from the GBP400,000 placing and then Laiker will use the repayment proceeds to subscribe for new shares in Vela at the 0.10p price.
Excluding the Laiker loan note repayment and Portr investment, Vela will use the remaining placing proceeds for general working capital and investment purposes
Vela has also agreed the conversion of the GBP200,000 loan notes held by Fletcher into 241.0 million new shares.
Once the placing shares and the Fletcher loan conversion shares are issued, Vela will have 1.48 billion shares in issue, of which 27% will be the 400.0 million placing shares.
Vela also issued a GBP2.3 million valuation of its investee companies. The valuation is based on either the current or mid-market price of listed investments, the cost of unlisted investments, or the latest valuation if the company is unlisted but there is reason for adjustment. As at March 2018, the company's investment portfolio was valued at GBP2.8 million.
Vela Technologies (VELA)